The actor Louise Fletcher, who has died aged 88, won the best actress Oscar in 1976 for her chilling and controlled performance in the film version of Ken Kesey’s countercultural novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
As Nurse Ratched, who instils fear into the patients in a mental institution without ever raising her voice, she was calmly terrifying. The part had shades of the panto villain about it, but Fletcher permitted vital glimpses into the human control-freak beneath this worthy exterior, notably in her standoffs with Jack Nicholson as the rebellious anti-hero McMurphy.
